ROME — Chinese bishops and religious leaders arranged a meeting with senior Hong Kong Catholic clergy to urge them to “Sinicize” the Church in Hong Kong, Reuters …
ROME — Chinese bishops and religious leaders arranged a meeting with senior Hong Kong Catholic clergy to urge them to “Sinicize” the Church in Hong Kong, Reuters reported this week. The private October 31 meeting, which was never publicized until now, was “Beijing’s most assertive move yet in its attempts to influence Hong Kong’s diocese,” Reuters stated, citing a member of the Hong Kong clergy present at the encounter. During the meeting, the Chinese prelates laid out President Xi Jinping’s view of Sinicized religion with “Chinese characteristics,” meaning conforming to the vision of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), of which Xi is chairman. At least one top Vatican official has eagerly embraced Beijing’s campaign to Sinicize the Catholic Church in China. In March 2018, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Vatican’s Foreign Minister, said in an address at the Jesuit-run Gregorian University in Rome that the two principles of “Sinicization” and “inculturation” are the key to the future of Christianity in China.
